The Big Picture

Kate Siegel returns to Collider Ladies Night for The Fall of the House of Usher! The acclaimed Netflix series focuses on the Fortunato Pharmaceuticals empire run by siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher. Given the dynasty has always been untouchable, Roderick and Madeline are shocked when their Usher heirs start dying one by one. During her Ladies Night chat with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Siegel reveals her character’s backstory and also discusses her producing ambitions.

Kate Siegel is a Collider Ladies Night favorite for a multitude of reasons. Just to name a few, she’s wildly talented, does exceptionally thoughtful and detailed backstory work, and she values the opportunity to build a filmmaking community and lift others up through it. She’s been doing all of that for years now, but as the Flanafamily grows and as her individual star rises higher and higher, there is no doubt she’ll become an even stronger force in boosting high-quality, bold storytelling made by good, talented people.

The most recent example of Siegel being a key part of such a production is The Fall of the House of Usher. Created by Mike Flanagan and directed by Flanagan and Michael Fimognari, the series focuses on the Fortunato Pharmaceuticals empire run by siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher (Bruce Greenwood and Mary McDonnell). Having always operated as though the Usher family is untouchable, Roderick and Madeline are shocked when their empire starts to crumble as the members of the Usher dynasty are killed off one by one.

With The Fall of the House of Usher available to watch on Netflix and beginning its awards season run, racking up three acting nominations at the Critics Choice Awards, Siegel was kind enough to take the time to return to Collider Ladies Night and offer up additional insight into her journey in Hollywood thus far.

The Fall of the House of Usher
Siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have built a pharmaceutical company into an empire of wealth, privilege and power; however, secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying. Release Date October 12, 2023 Seasons 1 Studio Netflix Creator Mike Flanagan

When the topic of “breaking out” in Hollywood came up, Siegel confidently dubbed the 2016 release Hush as her breakout project, but went on to explain that that doesn’t mean it was smooth sailing after the movie received a warm embrace on Netflix.

“I was reminded recently that after Hush came out, after Hush happened, it was just radio silence. Hush was huge and everyone loved it on Netflix, but I couldn’t get a manager, I couldn’t get auditions, and it was this shocking realization.”

Clearly the opportunities eventually came, but Siegel insisted on full transparency and emphasizing that some came her way due to the fact that she’s married to Flanagan. Here’s how she put it:

“For all the times that I auditioned and all of the respect and pride I have in my work, I was married to the showrunner of The Haunting of Hill House. That gave me an opportunity that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I might have gotten to interview or audition for that part, but it was given weight because of my station, and I think it’s important to talk about that. So what I say to people is that it is so far from what you think it is. It’s so far. It’s glitz and glamor and smoke and mirrors, and the reality of succeeding in this business is totally different.”

How Kate Siegel Redefined the Meaning of “Success” in Hollywood
Image via Netflix

What is the reality of succeeding in this business for Siegel? It’s making movies with her friends. Here’s how she put it:

“The only way I was able to do it and the only way I am able to do it to this day is to make movies with my friends. I had to write my own stuff. I have to work with my friends. My friends give me jobs, I give them jobs in return. I make new friends, I work with those friends. And sometimes my newer friends are more famous or they are more successful. We connect because we’re a fan of each other’s work, and then we want to work together. But my route, because I’m not a great auditioner, has always been, I meet someone, we want to work together, and then I do a lot, because I love to do a lot, of the dragging the elephant up the mountain. So right now I’m starting to produce little indies and I’m going, ‘Oh man, you know who I love? I love David Dastmalchian. I wonder if he would do this with me?’ And stuff like that.”

Not only has taking that approach to her work led to more opportunities for Siegel, but also a decrease in pressure and an increased sense of control. She explained:

“At this point, because I’ve worked with my friends and my family, a lot more of those offers are coming in, right? This is also important. People have started to ask if I want to do this or if I want to go play with another group of friends and do that kind of thing, and a really amazing thing starts to happen; I’m allowing myself to be picky because I’m like, ‘Listen, I have a great core group, and it’s always a lot of fun. We love what we’re doing. I’m allowed to stay with my family.’ My husband and I move our family with that. So for me to go do The Time Traveler’s Wife, it has to be an incredible opportunity with incredible people. The possibility of working with Steven Moffat on The Time Traveler’s Wife would have put me into a hot sweat of desire 10 years ago and I would have just blown it because I would have wanted it too bad. But now, with the recontextualizing of my priorities, those opportunities come and it feels easier. It feels less desperate, it feels less painful, and the work I want to do comes to me more because I feel more in control of myself.”

Image Via Netflix

In addition to feeling more in control of herself while navigating the business, Siegel also has an exceptional sense of clarity when it comes to knowing what she needs in order to deliver her best work in front of the lens. As someone with a brain that operates at a million miles a minute, something I can’t seem to harness using common calming practices like meditating, I asked Siegel how she quiets her mind on set. Much to my surprise, for Siegel, it isn’t about changing her thought process, but rather, embracing it.

“Anything that puts me more in my head separates me from the moment-to-moment reality of acting, so any kind of meditation or things like that puts me more into my head. And so the things I like to do are kind of two-fold. One is, that part of my brain that’s always kind of fumbling with the Rubik’s Cube of the scene, I think is beneficial. I love her. I used to hate her, but now I love her, and so what I’ll do is I’ll give her something arbitrary to think about. Like, for example, I say this a lot, but I thought about when I did that long walk-and-talk with Zach [Gilford] in Midnight Mass. I, in the back of my head, wanted my brain to work on the fact that Erin Greene hadn’t brushed her teeth that morning. It had to do with the way that I would look at him, and it really came out in behavior. But it was a completely arbitrary choice that let all the rest of the work that I did about the backstory about me traveling around the country with this band and how much I love Riley and what it’s like to be here and who’s watching me, and all that stuff, it kind of melted away because it was such a visceral experience to be like, ‘Do I have stinky breath?’ I find those choices really help me.”

As one might expect, Siegel also came up with such an idea for her The Fall of the House of Usher character, Camille, an idea that put her focus where it needed to be while filming and also one that added a mighty powerful layer to the character.

“With Camille, the arbitrary choice that we went with is that Camille is sober. She’s sober up until the moment she takes that edible with her brother. She relapses and then every choice she makes after then ends up with her death. And so when I was at family dinner, you’ll see me — I don’t even know if this made it into the cut — but while I wasn’t focusing on my father, my brother, my sister, the death, and Madeline, and all this stuff, I was just moving the wine towards me and away from me because I didn’t want my family to know I was sober because they would think I was weak.”

Kate Siegel Wants to Build More Filmmaking Families, Like the Flanafamily

What’s the plan for Siegel from here? How is she going to apply this creative clarity in front of and behind the lens to her work going forward, particularly as an artist venturing into producing? With great authority, Siegel proclaimed, “I want to make weird feminist shit with my friends.” She continued:

“However that happens, if my friends are like, ‘I’ve never written before, but I wrote this movie,’ I’d be like, ‘Let me read it.’ Or if someone I don’t even know slides into my Twitter DMs and is like, ‘Hey, can we take a meeting? I have a weird feminist shit movie.’ I want to know that. I want to reach down and pull other people up the ladder. I’m not necessarily, at this point, interested in producing studio movies. I’m looking for indies and maybe podcasts. Let’s start small and build more families. Let’s build families.”

Given the quality of every single show and movie the Flanafamily has produced, there is no doubt her drive to build filmmaking families will continue to benefit filmmakers and viewers going forward.

Looking for even more from Siegel on her past projects and The Fall of the House of Usher, including her pitch-perfect backstory for Camille? You can find just that in her full Collider Ladies Night interview in the video at the top of this article or in podcast form below:

Watch on Netflix